


Fire and Ice

by yourlocalaroace



Category: Empire's Tribute
Genre: Also some like sword violence but i don't know if I'd call it graphic violence, Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe, Asexual Kayuna, Biracial Kayuna, Bisexual Beligrad, Bisexual Grendo, F/M, Gay Tatyus, M/M, Magical Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance and relationships are b-plot but b-plot stands for best plot ;), Xenurian Order
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:33:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28951248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlocalaroace/pseuds/yourlocalaroace
Summary: Kayuna is one of the most powerful sages to have ever lived, the first one to combine the powers and legacies of two of the Nine Great Sages in one person. The fire and water may be the tool great enough for Kayuna to stop the resurrection of the Spider God, or it may be her downfall.Grendo is prince of the corrupt Faerie Courts, a bitter nation of faeries now consigned to the shadows of the world. On the run from a bad legacy, Grendo joins the Xenurian Order, a secret organization of mages dedicated to protecting humanity, but it doesn't answer his biggest question: will anything be enough to atone for the sins of the father?Tatyus is prince and heir to Bellonia, a militant kingdom trying to return to the glory days of the First Empire. His powers over death must be a sign from the gods of his right to rule. But freedom doesn't accompany power, as Tatyus well knows.Beligrad is a nobody. Uprooted, orphaned, and crippled, Beligrad feels a shadow of who he once was before the faeries came. Serving the Xenurian Order can give him some purpose, but it's not enough without the part of his identity lost forever or the people who made it worthwhile.
Relationships: CATBAG, Docenus & Portia, Grendo & Beligrad, Grendo/Tatyus, Kayuna & Grandma Delgoria, Kayuna & Tatyus, Kayuna & Valluha, Kayuna & Xenuria, Kayuna/Grendo, Mozenta & Beinklo, TEABAG, Tatyus & Mozenta
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	Fire and Ice

**Author's Note:**

> I gotta be honest with you chief, I looked at Empire's Tribute memes for like 3 hours and then decided that if I hadn't learned something in the canon within that time frame I wasn't going to use it. It's the first time I've been really inspired to write, so here is my own version of what happened in the Empire's Tribute universe. All of the work that the Empire's Tribute Discord server has done developing this "franchise" is incredible, astonishing, and inspiring. I could never have started this without you. However, I gotta say that some things in canon I have decided to ignore because I wanted to give all the characters ethnicities that matched their names' etymology and phonetics. And last but not least, I just wanted to say that if you're already very familiar with the Empire's Tribute canon, please don't come at me in the comments if I end up making a pairing that's weird in the official canon. My work here is to the Empire's Tribute canon what the Shadowhunters TV show is to the book series: it's probably only 25% the same and it might be better in the long run to consider them entirely different stories set in the same universe.
> 
> Here's to the post that inspired it all: https://charlesoberonn.tumblr.com/post/637233366427746304/im-gonna-post-some-memes-for-a-fandom-that
> 
> And shout out to @charlesoberonn on Tumblr for being the original genius behind Empire's Tribute!

“Shit. It’s already started.” Grendo’s low voice barely carried over the shrill, piercing wind of the arctic tundra, even though they were so close Kayuna could feel the puffs of his breath on her ear. They crouched into the snow peering over a steep ledge overlooking the beach on the northern coast of Jansaa. Far below, a narrow strip of sand separated the snow from the sea as huge gusts sent loose snow spraying across the tundra landscape. The only stark contrast against the white flurry was a small cluster of black-clad figures surrounding a glowing octagram burned into the snow. Near them, black banners with the Bellonian insignia whipped violently with the wind, brought only for the most auspicious rituals. Necromantic rituals.

“Kayuna, you ready?” said another, higher voice this time.

Kayuna glanced over her shoulder to see Valluha looking anxiously at her, already assuming a casting stance. With a pit of adrenaline building in her stomach, she nodded.

Taking a deep breath, she took off her thick brown fur coat into a new blast of wind and nearly collapsed into the ground, shivering in the freezing cold. Immediately a thump came of Grendo at her side and two warm mittens grabbed her arms helping her up.

“I’m fine,” she said, teeth chattering, and took a deep inhale, drawing up fire from her belly as Grandma Delgoria taught her, flushing her body with warmth. “I’m fine,” she said again, more stably.

Grendo squeezed her arm and gave her a smile. “Good luck out there.”

“Thanks.” Kayuna quirked a corner of her mouth in a half smile before turning back to the cliff ledge.

She closed her eyes. For a moment she waited, getting used to the strange feeling of wearing thin silks in subzero temperatures again. Then, raising an arm to each side, she tugged at snow particles in the air around her. The snow obeyed, swirling in a small mini flurry around her, growing in size as more and more snow was drawn in from the clifftop around them and the snow dust in the air. Her feet lifted off the ground, and her eyes flew open.

Now.

Kayuna willed herself in her miniature blizzard forward, taking the swirling snow storm with her over the cliff. She grinned, despite herself, as she picked up speed, hurtling toward the dark rites being performed on the beach, relishing in the freedom of flying, drawing more and more snowy gales into her blizzard. But then a hot sensation pressed into her forehead and she gasped. Grendo had magicked her silver circlet onto her head, the hot magic of its jewel pendant pressing into her forehead, just as she approached the necromantic ritual. Focus.

She kept the blizzard swirling under her feet so that she hovered just above the ground. At the corners of the octagram stood eight black fur robed figures, their hoods drawn low over their face. Only the eighth stood in the center of the octagram, holding a clay jar. Kayuna sent a powerful gust of snow dust flying in front of her, causing muffled yells to arise as some of the necromancers tumbled into the snow. 

“Stop,” Kayuna said. The magical pendant pressing into her forehead amplified her voice so that it boomed and echoed without her having to speak loudly.

“It’s the ice goddess,” one of the robed figures shouted.

Kayuna fixed him with a cold stare. “I am the goddess of the rivers and lakes. I am the goddess of the ocean and the frothing waves crashing into shores. I am the goddess of the snow and ice. I am life and I am destruction. And I do not give back what I take,” she said, enunciating every syllable in the last sentence. She turned her gaze to the Bellonian in the middle of the octagram, addressing him: “You will have one chance to cease this ritual.”

Barely visible under his hood, his mouth turned up in a smirk. “The Spider God protects and blesses us. What can you do to stop him?”

Him. The Bellonians thought the Spider God was a him. A snort escaped from Kayuna before she could stop it.

“The Spider God?” Kayuna echoed. “I was born eons before spiders were even thought of,” she improvised, trying to pass her snort off for something else. “I was born with the creation of the world. There is no god with any power here but for me.”

Power. She couldn’t give the necromancer time to respond to her; that would make it seem like a conversation. And you don’t just converse with the ice goddess.

She stepped forward onto the packed snow and solid ground, striding over to the nearest robed figure. She stretched out her hand to his cheek and drew the heat out of the air around him, freezing him near instantly. Freezing the water vapor in the air onto his skin, a thin sheen of ice crept over his face and down his neck. Satisfied, Kayuna withdrew her hand and flicked off the man’s hood, revealing the grotesque frozen corpse.

The Bellonian necromancers yelled and stumbled away from Kayuna and the now frozen statue of a man. Kayuna didn’t let them get far. She froze their feet with encasings of ice and stalked around the octagram, forcing up their chins to make them look at her.

“You will leave the shores of Jansaa. You will not interfere with my possessions. You will not come near my domain. You will never again embark over the waters or sail the seven seas. If any of you do, I will know the instant you are over my waves, and I will destroy you.” Kayuna glowered at the other hooded men and stretched out an arm in their direction. “Leave my domain. Now.”

But before she could do anything, a giant wave of heat exploded behind her, shooting up into the sky. Kayuna spun around to find the leader of the necromancers in the center of the octagram, where what should have been a small fire in the arctic blazed with the strength of a bonfire. The man reached into the open clay jar under his robe and withdrew his hand covered in crawling spiders, dropping them into the fire.

“NO!” Kayuna shouted, and, forgetting herself, she raised and contracted her arms, extinguishing the fire. Fire magic. But to her sinking dismay, the fire just bounced back up again, as if Kayuna had done nothing at all.

“Interesting,” the man said. He tilted his head under his hooded robe, and Kayuna’s stomach dropped. If he had figured out…

The man said, “Think fast,” and loud chittering to Kayuna’s right made her look and see three half-burned spider corpses, swollen to the size of horses, clambering out of the fire. Kayuna yelled and summoned to her hand the Sword of the Water Sage, the manifestation of her ancestral legacy passed on from her father’s father and all the sages before him. She swung the sword in an arc toward the giant spiders, freezing them in ice, trapping their limbs. She turned back to face the necromancer who, having set down the jar of spiders, now bore a clear grin. Stretching out his arm, an inky black void appeared before his hand, solidifying into the shape of a black metal sword identical to Kayuna’s in all but color.

“You’re no goddess,” he stated, only the wide smirk on his face visible.

Kayuna’s stomach lurched. The laws of the Xenurian Order were clear. If anyone found out the truth about the sages, they could not be allowed to live to tell the tale.

“And by the way,” he added, “your ice spell on my soldiers’ feet wore off.”

Kayuna spun around, and sure enough, the six remaining necromancers stood with their spears pointed straight at Kayuna, surrounding her in a semicircle.

With a guttural cry, she summoned the largest force possible focused at the tip of her sword and sent blasts of wind and snow in all directions around her, lifting her up into the center of a blizzard of her own making. But it wasn’t Kayuna who started it when all hell broke loose.

**Author's Note:**

> We'll be picking up this scene next chapter with a new POV :)) Teabag's POVs are on their way!
> 
> I'm hoping to update this fic every Monday, but my classes are kicking my ass. At worst I'll try to get new chapters up every one to two weeks.
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr for updates and other fun stuff or to send me a message! @your-local-aroace


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